Let me start off by saying I have searched, but I'm still not educated well enough to determine where I should start by improving my exhaust system on my 93 prelude si (h23A dohc).
At this moment in time a little low on funds to purchase an entire cat back system or a very expensive muffler. I was thinking of slowly building the entire system over a period of a few months in time. My question is where do I start? I'm all oem stock as of now.
I wanted to start of with a high flow type muffler to provide a different sound, and then work my way back to the more complicated upgrades. Would just installing the muffler itself provide a little better breathing for the engine...I've heard "anythings better than stock" but you can also go to big or to little on pipe size? I'm not looking for the "fart in the can sound" maybe a little deeper tone and louder as I accelerate, kind of like it's not there unless you want it. I do have a C.A.I in place, but I don't think that's going to make a vast improvement on acceleration for it to breath better without the out flow.
We don't have much of an emission law but I may still keep the cat to cut down on the noise, but what about flow? I do not want to reduce torque at all. And I've read that with straight piping the cat you may loose back pressure and sound "raspy"....Is this true?
I'm sorry this is so long but I want to make sure I have covered all of my questions on my post. I'm also a bit on the tight side, when it comes to funds...and I was thinking ebay may be a place to start, so if any of you college students are out there with very little money and a good sounding, cheap exhaust system on your lude would chime in that would be much helpful also.
Thanks,
-Shadow-
P.S. I plan on doing most of the work myself, with the exception of the welding, so any tips/info. that you guys have to offer will most def. be welcome. I need all the info. I can get.

 

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I hate to say it, but, the best thing you could do is save your pennies and get a full cat-back. The stock exhaust works fine, and over-all you might not waste money going piece by piece (I don't know, I've never priced everything individually), but the one thing that you will waste for sure is TIME. Imagine having to lift your car every time you want to install a piece. I don't think the performance/time ratio will be worthwhile doing it all seperately. Most full cat-back systems are straight bolt on (but be careful, not all of them are!), so you'll only need to lift your car once, and with a set of wrenches it's SUPER EASY to put it on yourself. The thing is, unless you have a car lift like the auto-shops do, it's really hard to install stuff on the bottom of such a low car.
I know it does nothing for you now, but I gurantee you'll be happier if you wait until you have the money for a full system.

 

Like he said, catback is the way to go if you want to do it in one step (to save the hassle of lifting the car up each time). I plan on getting a muffler and getting the local Mienake to weld me up some 2.25" piping and a resonator to that muffler.

 

Best thing you can do is.... nothing

Save your money, buy some stocks.....